Congratulations to four outstanding Telethon Kids Institute researchers who have received funding designed to support researchers who have narrowly missed out on highly competitive national funding.
The WA Near Miss Awards: Ideas Grant program, backed by the Western Australian Government’s Future Health Research and Innovation (FHRI) Fund, assists Western Australian researchers who submitted applications to the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant scheme that were deemed suitable for funding but exceeded the NHMRCs budget.
Pregnancy and Early Life Immunology Senior Research Fellow Dr Jonatan Leffler and his team received $100,000 to investigate the role of sex hormones on immune responses. Sex hormones affect the immune system and over 80 per cent of all patients with an autoimmune disease are female. Some autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, are triggered by infections of common viruses.
Dr Leffler’s research will work to investigate how sex hormones impact how the body responds to virus infections, with the long term aim to uncover novel ways to treat autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis. Other researchers involved in this work include Dr Stephanie Trend and Professor Prue Hart.
Strep A Pathogenesis and Diagnostics Senior Research Officer Dr Jua Iwasaki and her team have received $100,000 to lead a research project to develop a prototype vaccine to prevent Group A Streptococcus (GAS) from attaching to tonsils. GAS is responsible for over 500,000 deaths each year due to invasive infections and autoimmune complications. Even without showing symptoms, individuals can harbor the bacteria, potentially leading to autoimmune diseases or spreading the infection to vulnerable sites in the body.
Successful development of this vaccine will reduce the incidence of localised and severe GAS infections, and antibiotic use associated with treatments. Other researchers involved in this work include Dr Timothy Barnett, Dr Lisa Wagar (University of California, Irvine) and Associate Professor Samuel Lundin.
Telethon Kids Honorary Research Associate Dr Tasmin Symons, who is also from the School of Population Health at Curtin University, and her team will investigate how to improve malaria treatment to reduce the number of children dying from the disease in Africa. Dr Symons will bring together a team of international experts with the aim of providing urgent evidence on strategies maximising impact of treatment. Other researchers involved in this work include Dr Susan Fred Rumisha, Professor David Smith (University of Washington) and Professor Peter Gething.
Associate Professor Laurence Cheung, from Telethon Kids Cancer Centre and Curtin Medical School, and his team are aiming to find a better treatment for children with high-risk leukaemia by investigating the role fat cells in bone marrow play in the disease’s progression. Their work aims to better understand this role, to enable the development of novel interventions. Other researchers involved in this work include Dr Sung Kai Chiu, Associate Professor Rishi Kotecha, Dr Benjamin Mullin (University of Western Australia) and Dr Ankur Sharma (Curtin University).
Read the Minister’s full announcement here: https://www.wa.gov.au/government/media-statements/Cook-Labor-Government/WA-researchers-given-a-second-chance-at-national-success-20240529